A Kind Of Magic (5 page)

“Hold

on.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Elle felt herself falling. She gripped his muscled bare arms as if he were life itself. A scream lodged in her throat as they fell, and she knew, had there been light, her life would have flashed before her eyes.

His arm tightened around her just seconds before she felt her feet hit the floor.

Light filtered in from a source behind her, and she saw him holding a thick rope with his right hand.

She pulled out of his arms and felt something sticky on her hand and looked down to see it covered in blood. Roderick’s blood.

“Oh, my gosh.” She jerked off her favorite Abercrombie and Fitch shirt and reached for his arm.

“What are you doing?” he scolded. “We have to get moving.”

“Not with you bleeding all over the place. Now be still,” she said and wrapped her shirt around his arm.

When she finished she stepped back to look at the finished product. She wouldn’t win a nurse award, but it would do until she could get him to a hospital.

“Thank

you.”

The words were softly spoken. She raised her eyes to his face and found him staring at her strangely. “Why do I get the feeling
you
don’t trust
me
?”

“Come,” he said in answer and took her hand as he pulled her along winding staircases and long hallways until they came to the garage.

She wondered what kind of car he drove as they ran passed Porches, a Ferrari, Mercedes, and her favorite, Jaguars.

When he finally stopped in front of a motorcycle, Elle nearly laughed. When he handed her the helmet and straddled the bike, she let out a strangled cry.

“Get

on.”

“I hate these things. They’re dangerous.”

“It’s either this or the Harpies.”

At that moment, she heard the Harpies scream, and she hastily jumped on the back of the bike.

“Don’t kill me on this thing or I’ll come back and haunt you.” She was sure she heard him chuckle, but she didn’t get to think long on it since he gunned the bike and they flew through the garage, narrowly missing other cars.

Elle finally gave up and squeezed her eyes closed, refusing to open them. She had no idea how long they traveled, but she was too scared to do anything other than hang on and pray.

“Where do you live?” she heard him ask over the howl of the wind as they sped down the street.

“In the Montrose area.”

She opened one eye to find them on Westheimer only blocks from her home. She quickly gave him directions to her house, thankful that he had to slow because of an intersection.

By the time he pulled into her driveway, her entire body shook. She hopped off the bike and found her legs barely supported her. Instantly, strong hands grabbed hold of her.

“Are you all right?”

She looked up into his clear blue eyes and shook her head. “No. I’m not. I’ve been chased by Harpies, dropped to what I thought was my death, and then rode on one of the things I swore I would never get on. I just want to curl up in my bed with a glass of wine and forget about all of it.”

“Give me your keys.”

Without hesitation, Elle pulled her keys out of her hidden pocket in her skirt, a skirt splattered with blood, and handed them to Roderick. She went along when he put his hand on her back and guided her up the steps to her house, and then inside once he had unlocked the door.

She left him at the door and walked to her room. A nice hot shower was just what she needed. She stripped her clothes off as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As soon as her clothes were off, she stepped into the spray of the scalding water.

Steam rose around her, shielding her from the horrors outside and the questions running amuck in her mind.

Roderick watched Elle walk to the back of the house. He wasn’t afraid of where she would go since the place was only about a third in size of his home.

He flexed his left hand and felt a small sting from the vicious wound on his upper arm from the glass. It would heal quickly enough. He walked into the bed chamber and unbelted his sword and flail from his waist and laid them on the bed. He wanted them within reach at all times.

With a sigh, he sank onto the bed and thought of the creatures. Harpies. He needed to contact Aimery and Val quickly.

The sound of the shower running drew his attention. He turned his head and saw the steam rolling from the shower. His body cried out to join Elle, but his mind had a firm control for the moment and kept him from making a fool of himself by joining her.

It was the tinkling sound from the front of the house that had him up and reaching for his sword. He grasped the pommel and raised the sword toward the ceiling as he stepped from Elle’s bedchamber into the hallway.

With his eyes closed, his listened as the footsteps slowly and quietly drew near.

When the person was about to turn the corner, Roderick whirled around and swung his sword. At the last moment, he jerked his downward swing to a stop as he spotted Val.

“I could have killed you,” he growled.

Val raised an eyebrow and glanced down.

Roderick followed his gaze and saw the dagger near his gut. He lowered his sword and swore. “You could have told me you were in the house.”

“I didn’t know if you were here,” Val argued. “I saw your bike, but she could have taken it.”

Roderick raked a hand through his hair. “Have you been by our home?” Val’s eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Nay. What happened?”

“There is no need for you to roam the city trying to determine what creature is here. They attacked tonight.”

“They?” Val repeated. “What ‘they’?”

“Harpies.”

For a long moment, Val didn’t move. “If the myths were true, we’re going to have a hell of a time killing them.”

“That’s not all,” Roderick said when Val turned to walk to the kitchen.

“There’s more?” the Roman asked as he braced his shoulder against the door jam.

“I know who has the blue stone.”

Val jerked away from the door jam. “Elle.”

“She received it yesterday from a friend. There is no way she could have been controlling the Harpies all this time.”

“Have you destroyed it yet?”

Roderick shook his head. “I was a little more concerned with getting our butts out of there alive. They wanted her. Badly.”

At that moment, the shower cut off. Roderick pointed to the kitchen and turned to retrace his steps to Elle’s bed chamber. He walked in just as she wrapped a towel around her glistening wet body.

He salivated at the glimpse of exposed skin. Her wet hair hung around her shoulders dripping droplets of water down her arms and shoulders.

Damn, but he wanted her.

Elle ignored the water dripping onto her bath mat and floor as she stared at Roderick. She couldn’t take her eyes off his luscious body, and she was quite certain she had never called any man luscious before.

His muscles bunched and moved as he lowered his sword on the bed.

[_Sword! _]

“Just who are you?” she asked, her near nakedness forgotten.

“Get dressed and come into the kitchen. I will explain everything.” He turned and walked from her bedroom, and all she could do was think how yummy he looked. She caught a glimpse of her shirt tied around his arm and hurried to dress so she could see to the wound. It would be just her luck that he passed out in the kitchen from loss of blood.

She yanked open a drawer in her lingerie armoire and grabbed a set of apricot colored bra and panties. Then, she tugged on a pair of yoga-type pants and another tank before she quickly combed through her wet hair and made sure all her mascara was off her face.

And that’s when she spotted the necklace. She hadn’t even realized she had showered with it on. It wasn’t like her to leave any jewelry on in the shower, but then again, she had never been chased by Harpies before.

She unclasped the necklace and tucked it away in the jewelry armoire. She had a feeling Roderick wanted that necklace, and she wasn’t about to part from it. It was a gift from Jennifer, and Elle planned to treasure it always. After she put away her jewelry, she walked into the kitchen and came to a dead stop.

All thoughts of Roderick’s injury fled from her mind as she stared at the man next to him—a man she had already met.

“I have to admit that I feel as though I have a need for a stun gun.”

“Stun gun?” Roderick asked as he looked at her.

“It isn’t a coincidence that …Val, is it … came to our beach house?” She had to give Roderick credit. He didn’t look at all happy at the situation. Val, on the other hand, simply stared at her.

“We were looking for you,” Val finally answered.

Whatever hope she had that Roderick really might like her vanished like smoke.

She should have known that men like him didn’t notice women like her, but it still stung, more than she liked to admit.

“Me? Why?”

“Elle,” Roderick said as he slid off the bar stool and came to stand beside her.

“This is all going to sound very strange.”

She rolled her eyes. “You mean like the Harpies that attacked us at your penthouse?”

Roderick sighed. “You might need to sit down for this.” By the looks on both of their faces and the sword and flail on her bed, Elle didn’t think she had much of a choice. She’d had such a good vibe about Roderick. Who would have known he was a serial killer.

“Just kill me now.”

“What?” the men asked in unison.

“I saw the weapons, Roderick. You both admitted to looking for me. Obviously, you both have escaped some psycho ward or prison.” Val snorted. “If we wanted to kill you, you would have been dead on the beach.” Roderick said something to Val in a language that sounded suspiciously like Latin and then turned to her. “Please,” he said and motioned to the sofa in the living room.

She decided to comply, simply out of curiosity. She doubted there was anything that they could tell her that would be stranger than what she had seen at Roderick’s penthouse. Besides, her legs still vibrated from the awful motorcycle ride.

Elle sank onto the couch while Val took the chair to her left and Roderick sat on the stool in front of her. She watched Roderick as he seemed to search for a way to start.

After several minutes, it was apparent he was having a hard time.

Val mumbled under his breath. “Elle, we’re looking for a woman with a mark on her.”

“Mark? What kind of mark?” she asked.

“An unusual mark that looks similar to the Celtic symbols that you know.” Elle felt the breath rush from her body. “Why?”

“Do you have the mark?” Roderick asked, his eyes on the floor.

“Why?” she asked again.

He raised his dark blue eyes. “Please, Elle. Do you have the mark?” She slowly nodded her head.

“We need to see it,” Val said.

Elle bent over and lifted the hem of her pants, thankful that they were cotton and lycra and stretched. She pulled up the pants until she reached the mark that looked similar to a Celtic eternity knot circled by a thick, solid line on the inside of her right thigh.

“We found her,” Val said, relief shining in his green eyes.

Elle released her pants and looked at Roderick. “What is that mark?”

“Twas placed on you before you were sent here.”

“From where? And there is the “’twas” again. Who speaks like that?”

“From where we come from ‘tis normal,” Val said.

A chill ran down Elle’s back at his words. “And where do you come from?”

“I am from Rome.”

From the expectant look on their faces, she realized they anticipated for that to bother her. “So.”

“79

BC.”

It was a good thing Elle was sitting for her entire body began to shake. She moved her eyes to Roderick. “And you?”

He took a deep breath. “I am not from this realm.” Elle looked from one to the other and began to laugh. It was either that or cry.

Surely these two men were delusional. There was no way they could be telling her the truth.

“I am not lying,” Roderick said softly.

She stopped laughing and wiped her eyes. “How can I believe you?” He licked his lips, then untied her shirt from around his arm. Where there should have been a huge gnash, there was nothing.

Elle gasped and vaulted from the couch to kneel beside him. She reached out to touch him but stopped at the last moment. Her eyes lifted to his face. “How did that happen?”

“I’m

immortal.”

She sat back on her heels and tried to take it all in. “I thought that only happened in movies.”

Roderick shook his head. “I can only be killed one way.”

“By chopping off your head?” she asked, thinking of the movie Highlander.

“A special weapon that isn’t in this realm.”

“So far,” Val added.

Roderick threw him a look before he turned back to Elle. “You don’t feel as though you belong here, do you?” Roderick asked.

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“You aren’t from this realm either.”

That actually made a lot of sense to her, but she wasn’t about to tell them that.

She was beginning to think she was as nuts as they were. “And what realm am I from?”

“Ronnoc. It was destroyed by the same evil that has descended on Earth.” Elle rose to her feet and began to pace her tiny living room. “This is like something off of the Sci-Fi channel.”

“It’s the truth,” Roderick said as he stood.

Elle nearly ran into his rock solid bare chest. She raised her face to look him in the eye. “It’s too bizarre to be real.”

“There’s more,” Val interjected.

She glanced at him, not sure she could take more. “More?” Val nodded his head.

“What else?” she asked Roderick.

“How do you think we came from ancient Rome and another realm?” She shook her head. “I don’t think I want to know.”

“The Fae,” he finally said.

“The Fae? As in Faeries?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” a deep voice asked from behind her.

Elle whirled around to see the most striking creature she had ever laid eyes upon.

He had long, straight white blonde hair that reached halfway down his back. He was incredibly tall and lithe, but power radiated from him letting all know just how much strength he had.